Alterations in progress

AKA caution, Boud at work.

So I shortened the two dresses I mentioned yesterday, and I'm looking at ways to decorate them, if I don't do cutouts, which I might still do.

The little rectangular painting is one I painted directly years ago on a t-shirt. When it wore out I kept the painting and now it might have new life. Acrylic paint, has been washed many times.

The silk stars and hexies I've got from making them whenever I felt like a bit of stitching. I have quite a few more, before I get to the decisions. 

I also have a bonus: the two pieces of soft knitted fabric that I cut off,  big enough for shorts or underwear.  Or shorts that work as underwear.

Stitching is on hold today for seasonal technical reasons. My thumb is wrapped in bandaids and tape to help heal the crack that opened up when the temperature and humidity plunged, making it impossible to put pressure on the thumb for the moment without enlarging the crack. I also can't stitch with the wrapped thumb for now.

A derma explained to me years ago this is a systemic skin structure issue. It's not just the surface that opens, like winter dryness. It's a quarter inch deep and bleeding before you know it. I forgot to start on my gotu kola in October, the usual way to ward it off, so here we are.

A couple of days wrapped and protected will be good. At least it's only one. I've had both thumbs and forefingers suddenly break down in a cold snap, which made using keys really tricky. 

I practice rigorous skin care, but this is not your usual winter skin thing, and nothing other than gotu kola seems to ward it off.

The thing that helps healing, after the fact, is a poultice of Chinese licorice, but only if it's exactly the right stuff. I'm posting the label as a public service, in case anyone needs to know this.

It was a terrific local herbalist who taught me about this and insisted it must be the exact right species. I've had this for years; it was dried when I got it and still seems to work.

You steep a couple of slices of the root in a couple of ounces of boiling water, then when it's tolerable to touch, submerge the hurting bit for a while. 

You can also soak lint or gauze in it as hot as you can manage, and hold it as a poultice on  on the hurting bit. Its astonishing how soon it calms down and starts to heal. Haif an hour can do it for a start. I have never taken it internally so I'm not suggesting that 

Enough medical stuff.  While I've been writing, a gang of squirrels has wrenched the suet feeder off the shepherd's crook by force, so I need to go rescue it.